Antoine Catala

Decades after their making, Gober’s room-size installations can still fill viewers with pangs of rage. At the SculptureCenter, Camille Henrot and Ruba Katrib have put together a drippy, rubbery, slithery show themed around silliness.

Earlier in the day we debated whether the Independent was anything other than a fair (it’s not). Now we discuss the art in the fair. We had a lot more to say about the Independent than we did the Armory Show, so that’s at least one good sign for its future.

The Cat Show at White Columns has everything and nothing to do with cats. Everything, because most of the 134 artworks show cats or cat-related ephemera—like litter boxes, scratching posts, or yarn. Nothing, because the themes of many of these works aren’t about cats at all.

This week, we crawled out of our blog cave to set out on a new adventure for our “We Went to _____” series: the Upper East Side. To be expected from the UES, we saw some blue chip art, but we also found some surprises, like a show by emerging net artists. What we liked, and what we should’ve skipped, within.

The Independent Art Fair's great gift: eye contact. With vast ceilings, large windows, and no cubicle-style booths, people aren’t constantly scanning the room behind you to locate James Franco. This means no angry smiles, no high-speed nodding, and no cracked-out active listening. The tone is friendlier. Admission is free, and light is ample. Much of the work is genuinely interesting. Open space literally translates an air of transparency; though this is still no place for an art experience, it feels closer to an exhibition than a department store.